40% of social network accounts are spammers

Around 40 per cent of the accounts on Facebook and Twitter and eight per cent of messages are spam.

According to Business Week, the volume of spam on social networks has been increasing recently as the efficacy of using social networks to propagate spam has eclipsed email.

A common tactic used is that of ‘likejacking’ - a process whereby the user is encouraged to Like a page before being granted access to a video or where clicking a link also adds a Like to spam content – which is thought to have affected over 280,000 Facebook users.

The social networks are now acting to combat the spam though. Both Facebook and Twitter have initiated legal action against companies that are suspected of spam. In a case against two companies called Skootle and JL4 Web Solutions, Twitter claims that it has spend $700,000 trying to combat the spam that the defendants created.